no. 46

SELECTED BYCHRISTIAN ANNYASTHE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARMDESIGNED BYSAUL BASS

Before the mid-1950s, most Hollywood movie title cards and opening credits were typographically static. Projectionists only pulled back the curtains to reveal the screen once they’d finished. Then Saul Bass came along with his expressionistic animated title sequences.

His design for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) has become a landmark in title design and set the bar for what has become an essential popular art. These movies within movies are sometimes as memorable as the films themselves. And designers have been paying homage to—and building on—them ever since.

So novel was this sequence, when the reels of film for The Man with the Golden Arm arrived at U.S. ...

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